The Trailer Report – 4/11/14

Hello, all you movie watchers out there! Welcome to The Trailer Report, where we’ll break down all of the week’s biggest movie and TV trailers, and try our best to answer the ultimate question for all trailers: Does it look good?

Chef

A chef who loses his restaurant job starts up a food truck in an effort to reclaim his creative promise, while piecing back together his estranged family.

Does it look good?Eh. Favreau’s directorial history is very spotty. For every Made there is a Cowboys & Aliens, for every Elf there is a Zathura, for every Iron Man an Iron Man 2. This one doesn’t really look like it’s going to fall in the former camp. It doesn’t look terribly funny, nor that dramatic. Honestly, it looks to me like Jon Favreau took a few cooking classes, got really into it, and decided one night that it would make a great movie.

Deliver Us From Evil

A police officer joins forces with an unconventional priest to combat a series of possessions that are terrorizing their city.

Does it look good?Yeah, maybe. I’m always down for well done possession movie, though those are precious few and far between. The director here, Scott Derrickson, has two similar films under his belt (Exorcism of Emily Rose and Sinister), both of which I liked. He seems to be mixing possession horror with police procedural here, and those two certainly can go together well. I’ll be curious to see how the two mesh in this one.

Fort Bliss

After an extended tour in Afghanistan, a decorated U.S. Army medic and single mother struggles to rebuild her relationship with her young son.

Does it look good?Could be. I see two ways this could go. It could be a fascinating character study of a soldier torn between wanting to integrate to familial life but unable to cope with it; almost like if we got to see more from The Hurt Locker during his brief stint at home. Or it’ll end up being a sappy tale of inspiration as a woman finally realizes all she really needs is to settle down and be a mom. I suppose you can guess which I’m rooting for.

How To Train Your Dragon 2

Hiccup and Toothless return, facing new wild dragons, a mysterious dragon guru, and a dangerous warlord intent on enslaving every dragon he can find.

Does it look good? Yep, it really does. I loved the first film, which was a wonderful mix of clever humor, intense action, and some surprisingly deep themes. This looks to at the very least have the first two back in spades. I’m concerned the tone might turn a bit more childish than the first, just because that is a common occurrence in these animated sequels, but the action and visuals involving the dragons look just as solid, if not better, than the original.

I Origins

A molecular biologist falls in love with deeply spiritual woman who leads him to uncover evidence that may fundamentally change society as we know it.

Does it look good? Hard to say. I’m not even sure what kind of movie I’m looking at here. Is this sci-fi, with the implied medical discovery being something really far out? Is it going to be more of a romance? More of an introspective philosophical kind of thing? I like the idea of intelligently discussing hard logic vs. spirituality, as these conversations usually come in movies that are hard propaganda for one or the other (usually the latter), but I can’t make out if the film will even be doing any on that.

Planes: Fire & Rescue

Air racer Dusty shifts gears into the dangerous world of aerial firefighting and learns what it takes to be a true hero.

Does it look good? Nope. A sequel to a spinoff of one of Pixar’s worst movies, this one has little to redeem itself. At this point it’s hard to blame Pixar, as the Planes spin-off was Disney spinning off the acquired Cars. Still, all these, Cars and Planes, are the kind of cheap kids entertainment that I can’t help but loath. And Dane Cook, guys. Dane Cook is still working. On this.

That’s it for this week. Let me know in the comments which of these you’re most excited about, and which ones you want nothing to do with.

Author

Chris spends far too much time consuming media (be it movies, TV, books, games, or comics) and then spends a damn sight more time dissecting these in his head, leading to a series of writings that are just fragmented and nonsensical enough to make him a master of the overused comma and the unnecessary parenthesis (a title whose merits can justifiably be debated), as well as a huge fan of run on sentences.